Well, after a few hours of huffing and puffing, I couldn't get the engine in. It seems that my measurements were a little off, and the vacuum pump and coolant flange are an issue. That's the bad news. I was able to get the engine onto the ATV jack, using a jack stand, some lumber and another jack to get it in the air enough to slide the ATV jack under. I placed a 2x4 on each of the 2 ATV runners so the engine would be more steady and then put a couple of thin,narrow boards under the right side to give the engine the tilt necessary. This set me up fo mating to the main transaxle mount at the front edge of the engine bay.
I was able to get the mountpoint within 1/2" of the mount before the vacuum pump and coolant flange hit the tank. Stupidly, I thought the jack was getting caught on something underneath it, so I pushed it a little hard and cracked the coolant flange. Great. So, I pulled the engine back, removed the flange, stuffed a clean rag into the hole and set to work again, this time watching the top end. A few hoses were dangling in the way, so it took a few tries, and some hose holding before I could see the vacuum pump hitting the tank. So, I called it a day so I could think through the options.
option 1 - "contour" the tank
This is not a pretty alternative, but it might be effective. By deadening the blow with a piece of lumber, I could hammer a concave section into the tank. This would not look pretty. I could rupture the tank. But, most important, this would take a bunch of time and still may not fit right. It could be done without pulling the tank, though.
option 2 - buy a splitty tank
The old split-window bus fuel tank held between 8 and 10 gallons of fuel (depending on the year, with the last few years having 10 gallon capacity). The bay window tank holds 15 gallons. A split-window bus (manufactured through 1967) can stil be found in the Pacific NW. In fact, people with split-window busses frequently swap their small-to-them tank for a bay window tank. I don't have the dimensions of the split window tank, but it would have to be at least an inch if not 2 inches less deep to be worth my while, fitment-wise. If I learn the dimensions, I'll post them here. The original tank is 36" wide by 11" deep by 9" high. Its not a square box for those doing the math at home and asking why am I saying the capacity isn't 15.5 gallons. Either way, if I were to go this route, I would be choosing to reduce my miles-per-fillup by 1/3. Of course, I'd also be choosing to not carry 30 pounds (5 gal @ 6 lbs per gallon), so there is a small upside.
option 3 - unhook the tank and try again
Basically, with this option, I disconnect the hold-down straps and push the tank around to see if I can make it fit with the engine. I don't think its possible, but it might be worth trying just to see how far it misses by. Regardless, I'd rather have a full inch between the engine and anything that's not the engine, so this would probably be a waste of time.
In the end, I'm going to yank the tank and mount the engine without a fuel tank. Once I know I can mount the engine, I can drop it later to get a tank in there. My biggest enemy right now is time and the weather. Here, in the Pacific NW, the darkness comes very early, making night-time work impossible. The nearly constant rain (that usually is hammering us by now. its late) makes daytime work very unpleasant when I can even find daylight hours to do bus stuff. My goal is to get the engine in the bus and the bus into the garage as quickly and as soon as possible. To meet that end, the fuel tank is coming out on Friday, and the engine is going in.
I'll post pictures once its in. I hope that will be this weekend.... after turkey. I hope you have/had a nice Thanksgiving holiday. Personally, I'm grateful for employment, a leak-free roof over my head, food in the kitchen and smiling faces when I arrive home. Everything other than that is just gravy.
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